Saturday, September 10, 2011

Day 1 - Goondiwindi to Yelarbon

Left home at 6.30am, picked Kat up at her place and off went. Got to Gundi about 9.15 and went and registered. My ride id has Gibbo's name on it! Engulfed again. We drove a few hundred metres to the park where we were to assemble. Kat and I had been paranoid about sticking to the weight limit. We needn't have worried; our bags weren't weighed! We had been agonising over 200-400 grams; I even took some nickers out to lighten the load!

Gibbo discovered a flat tyre on the car so he changed that (better on the car than on the bike!).

 The lens cap was stuck half-way...........I wanted to open and close it but Gibbo just stuck his finger in it and flicked it open..................................
 Katrina said something about how frustrated I must get at times......................
 We started laughing....................
 and couldn't stop...................


We bid him farewell, then went for coffee and a bacon and egg sandwich and found a warm spot to sit out of the wind to await the start.

Left Gundi in a rolling start at midday, was a bit nervous not to knock anybody off - Kat and me and 813 new friends!! 57km flat terrain to Yelarbon, cold riding day, lunch was good - corn meat and salad wrap. Just had a warm shower (that was interesting - walked in and all I could see was bums and boobs - it's very communal), now sitting in tent then going to go charge iPhone :) then head to dinner (chicken kebabs and salad). Tailwind all the way, hope it continues! Can hear music playing. Hundreds of tents! Photos to come upon my return.

Can't believe I'm actually doing this!

Friday, September 9, 2011

Tomorrow is the Big Day!

Finally, I'm packed and ready to go....on my 600km bike ride. We head to Gundi in the morning, nice and early, to register, check in our bags and collect our official bits. We roll at 12 noon. CQ 2011, here we come.

It's been a crazy week, trying to get everything done at work and home and packing in amongst jobs in town, a final ride and helping Drew with his SOI sponsorship letters....and then this morning waking up to grey and overcast skies....and a bit later, pouring rain. Oh dear, I thought, Oh no. Katrina sent me a text - OMG is all it said! However, a clearing shower late in the afternoon did bring blue skies but the bureau is predicting frosts. It will be what it will be and we will just have to go with whatever comes (not something I'm generally very good at - I like to be a little more in control than that but I decided a week ago to just let go and roll with it. there are some things I just can't control like the headwinds and the hills - all I can control is how I ride so I'm going with that! That theory might go out the window if I find myself sitting in a soaking windblown tent at some stage!).

So I'm going to post a little note each day just to record my progress and will add photos when I return....looking for my next challenge.

Monday, September 5, 2011

Mudpiehomer posted about the two little silkies that went to live with her and her boys in the city. It's a nice story. Here's the link - Snuffy and Grommice.

The New Rockers

Meet the latest additions to my world - three large Plymouth Rock chooks. Collectively, I'll call them The Rockers. Individually I'll call them Bruce (Springsteen), Stevie (Nicks) and Patti (Smith) - all legendary Rockers themselves. They're my birthday present for next weekend.


Aren't they beautiful? I'll take some more photos tomorrow, in the daylight. I think it's the barred feather patterning that really gets me.

Dear Meg and Drew - I Went Shopping

I did the morning jobs and got ready to go to Toowoomba. I went to fuel the car up when a song from a long time ago came on the radio. It was a Pink Floyd song; I don't know its' name, I call it "Wish You Were Here". It's got very distinctive guitar picking in it and it was a favourite song of J's. I just sat in the car, waiting for it to finish, remembering the day of his accident and then his death three days later and then his funeral a few days later again. I remember how our friends all rallied around us and I think it rained at the graveside....I remember being wet at the wake. We were all bulletproof, or so we thought but his death proved we weren't. It made me realise that life's not always a joke, that terrible things do happen to very good people. I haven't thought about him for a long time but that song really took me back 28 years.

On the drive down I listened to a story on Radio National (best radio station in the nation) about homeless people and the lack of suitable housing available for them and how the situation is just getting worse all the time. They interviewed a number of people from both sides of the fence - the homeless people and the people trying to help them. I was totally engrossed in the program and the drive passed quickly. It made me think again how I'd like to find a job that actually had an impact on someone else in a positive way instead of shuffling paper from one side of a desk to the other in a meaningless, monotonous, repetitive routine.

CG was pretty quiet. I went to have a mid morning bacon and egg mcmuffin - but McD's don't do breakfast on a Sunday morning....hello? I went to Rebel and checked out their cycling gear, looking for a decent rain jacket. I walked to Kathmandu and bought a rain cover for my backpack and some socks and a t-shirt (one less car, thought it was perfect!) - all on sale and combined with my Summit Club discount I saved $60. I went back to CG via another camping shop (where I purchased one tent peg for 70 cents); back to Rebel to buy the rain jacket I'd seen earlier and a new pair of cycling nicks with the money that Mum and Mate gave me for my birthday. I spent ages wandering aimlessly around Target and bought a few things - a hanging toilet bag for the truck showers, a boys grey singlet, a pair of thongs and a pair of new day shoes. I wanted to get blue ones but they didn't have any left in a size suitable for my big hoof.




Then I went to Coles and bought some bits and pieces for next week. By this time it was about three o'clock so I sat at a coffee shop and had a piece of French Bacon Pie, which was a fancy name for Quiche, and a cappucino (in a cup, not a mug). I sat there and checked fb on my phone, crossed things off my list and wondered if this was how it felt to be on your own. I really missed you both today, felt it more strongly than other days. I wondered if people who don't have a partner or children that live near them, feel like I did today, only they feel it all the time. Or do they get used to it? I'm very glad I've got a family that loves me.

I came home and the four leggers met me. Gibbo was on his way back with my two leggers! I took the camera outside while I did the rounds and captured the goats being really naughty. Peach has finally worked out that all she has to do to get out of the pen is follow her mother! They were both in the gauzed room when I got home and they followed me back over to their pen but they played up along the way. Poofy knew to keep his distance.
Peach ran around, quite deranged.

They chased Coco and Pepper got her; Coco just wasn't quick enough - she came whimpering to me and jumped up on my legs. I picked her up and rescued her.

Then it was the cat's turn!!!

 See the cat's back legs as it leaps from the tree??!!! I was a split second too late taking the photo.
So then she snuck inside their little hut for some protection.
All goats safely away and eating now. Safe for all domestic animals to re-emerge.
 

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Dear Meg and Drew

The weekend has been REALLY busy. I was still at work on Friday night when Gibbo rang and suggested we ditch the lamb casserole I had planned - so we went to town and got large spring rolls from JC instead. A nice way to finish off the week but not so good for his diabetes.

I went to town on Saturday morning and met Jen at Mum's; I'm borrowing her tent for my bike ride. We put it up in Grandma's back yard. It should be perfect (as long as I get the right bits in the right places!). I'm going to have another practice run at home here this week so I'll send you a photo of it (maybe).

Then I came home, quickly got changed into my riding gear and met K at Macalister for our epic ride to Bell. Seventeen kilometres of straight road, treeless, into a headwind. Another 26km of hills although the wind wasn't quite so bad as there were plenty of trees along the roadside. The hardest part of all - the last 2km into Bell; very tough going. We ordered toasted sandwiches and bought red powerade then collapsed on the benches out the front of the shop......and stayed there for about forty minutes. We had our Cadel Evan's Energy Bars and our Endura gloop to give us energy on the way home. Against her better judgement, Kat had a Rocky Road Magnum, a decision she was to regret about 35km into the return journey! We had a tailwind most of the way home but it still didn't push us up the hills! We did 86km all up, our longest training ride; we'll just do a couple of 20 or 30km rides this week and be rested up for Saturday.

We had the lamb casserole that night. I gave Gibbo the Fathers Day presents I'd bought him - a new beaut little red torch for egg candling and a shoot-em-up dvd I saw at the Coles checkout. I had picked a different movie out but this one said "the best straight up action film of the year" so I chose it. He watched it last night!
I was in bed by 7.30, worn out.
Gibbo left here at 4.30 this morning to drive to Lismore with Mr. P. to a poultry auction - where he bought me some chooks for my birthday. More on them later.

New York, New York Two

















New York, New York One

This is how Drew saw New York in the few hours he was there.